We are all enamored about the focus of IT and ITES companies who are looking at the Tier II and Tier III cities. But now it appears that due to the enormous congestion in Tier I cities, the development of industrial clusters, corridors, estates, hubs and a whole lot of units in the services sector are choking themselves in this congestion and the private and public companies ( Non IT) are looking to move their facilities to smaller cities.

Nasscom has identified the following cities for rapid growth in the very neat future.

Chandigarh, Pune, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Mangalore, Mysore, Kochi, Coimbatore, Madurai, and Tiruchi.

But they also identify that the cities like Pune and Coimbatore are already overcrowded and falling into the same vicious cycle of more growth leads to more migration which leads to more growth and they think this cities are reaching a tipping point in favour of other tier II cities. The pressure on these towns has begun to show, exposing once more the inadequacies of the systems, and the inability of the private sector and the government agencies to act in tandem to promote new investment centres.

So what is the expectation of these companies ?

Better physical and social infrastructure in these towns.

So what infrastructure they are talking about ? Physical and Social infrastructure like below.

Physical infrastructure will include roads, transport, services, housing, air and rail connectivity, while social infrastructure should provide for educational institutions, health services, recreation facilities, and hotels.

Some of the companies are going away from the SEZ type development where they will build a township with all the amenities in a conclave somewhere outside the city. ( It reminds me of BHEL township.. It is so yesteryears…. We need to get over this)

Cognizant’s Managing Director and President R. Chandrasekaran says: “The primary reason for the IT industry to be attracted to a Tier II city or a Tier III city is its educational infrastructure and the resultant quality talent pool. The second important criterion is infrastructure. Availability of ‘A’ category commercial real estate space, preferably with SEZ notification, good roads, airport with good connectivity, and good hotels, is important.

Even if one or more of these may not exist initially, visible efforts to develop them in parallel become important. Otherwise, the initial enthusiasm will die down and companies may not grow in these locations.”

How very true.. It clearly says that the expectation from these companies is not that everything like great infrastructure should exist before they move in , but the public and private companies should have a plan to improve the infrastructure and should execute the same with a plan. These companies are ready to grow with the city but just needs a promise and a plan with honest execution.

Is is too tall to ask ?

I don’t think so.. This is a great opportunity for Trichy to wake up and add up / Speed up its already improving facilities.

Source: The Hindu.